Quality Reporting
CMS is encouraging home health agencies to strive for best quality of
patient care. To help facilitate this, CMS provides benchmarks
and quality indicators
within
the OASIS assessment, some of which are available to the public on Home
Health Compare.
Many of the quality indicators are also OASIS items affecting reimbursement.
Although Cahaba is very concerned about quality of patient care,
our primary focus must remain to pay your claims correctly. CMS
has contracted with Quality
Improvement Organizations (QIOs)
to
assist providers in obtaining the most efficient routes to best quality
of care. Home health agencies should check with the QIO for their
state to receive clarification for issues relating to quality of care.
Home health providers should be aware that Medicare reimbursement may
be further impacted by a 2 percent reduction as required by the Deficit
Reduction Act (DRA) if quality data is not reported. For more
information, refer to page 49861 of the August
29, 2007 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 167. ![]()
Page last updated: November 25, 2008